Pirate's Cove

Sunday, two of the biggest papers on the East coast decided to run long articles on Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith. The NY Times one trended on Memeorandum Sunday, and included subtle digs at Mitt being very religious (see Ann Althouse for more)

As a young consultant who arrived at the office before anyone else, Mr. Romney was being “deseret,” a term from the Book of Mormon meaning industrious as a honeybee, and he recruited colleagues and clients with the zeal of the missionary he once was. Mitt and Ann Romney’s marriage is strong because they believe they will live together in an eternal afterlife, relatives and friends say, which motivates them to iron out conflicts.

Mr. Romney’s penchant for rules mirrors that of his church, where he once excommunicated adulterers and sometimes discouraged mothers from working outside the home. He may have many reasons for abhorring debt, wanting to limit federal power, promoting self-reliance and stressing the unique destiny of the United States, but those are all traditionally Mormon traits as well.

Outside the spotlight, Mr. Romney can be demonstrative about his faith: belting out hymns (“What a Friend We Have in Jesus”) while horseback riding, fasting on designated days and finding a Mormon congregation to slip into on Sundays, no matter where he is.

And, *gasp*, he prays. A lot. Obvioiusly, that means he is a bad choice for president. How dare he have faith!

The Washington Post also took a stab at Mitt’s Mormon roots: Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith tangles with a quirk of Arkansas history

On the wildflower-studded slopes of the Ozarks, where memories run long and family ties run thick, a little-known and long-ago chapter of history still simmers.

On Sept. 11, 1857, a wagon train from this part of Arkansas met with a gruesome fate in Utah, where most of the travelers were slaughtered by a Mormon militia in an episode known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Hundreds of the victims’ descendants still populate these hills and commemorate the killings, which they have come to call “the first 9/11.”

Many of the locals grew up hearing denunciations of Mormonism from the pulpit on Sundays, and tales of the massacre from older relatives who considered Mormons “evil.”

Those are the first three paragraphs of the story, meant to put Mormonism, and Mitt, in a bad light. And then we find out

And yet, there is scant evidence that Romney’s religion is making much difference in how voters here are thinking about the presidential election and whether they are willing to back the former Massachusetts governor.

So, what was the point of the story? Mitt wasn’t alive during that time period, nor does it appear as if his ancestors were involved. Much like the Times’ article, this one seems to be an attempt to make a dig at Mormonism. The Times’ article spent quite a bit of time delving into the history of Mormonism. These aren’t the first articles that take subtle (and not so subtle) digs at Mormonism and Mitt Romeny, and certainly won’t be the last.

But, where are the articles on Obama? The original title of the Times’ article was “How the Mormon Church shaped Mitt Romney.” When will we get the one entitled “How Jeremiah Wright’s Hate Church Shaped Barack Obama”? Will we see one from the Post entitled “Barack Obama’s Black Liberation Theology Tangles With Those Who Don’t Believe In The Phrase “No, no, no, God Damn America!”?

As the media does their pro-Obama magic, will we finally hear about the polygamy of Barack H. Obama’s father, who was married to three women at once? We’ve certainly heard about the polygamy of Romney’s ancestors over a century ago (with the Left’s penchant for being against traditional marriage, why, exactly, is polygamy bad? Perhaps a liberal could explain it). It’s an obvious political bias from the media, and they wonder why people call them biased.

But, then, they really do not want to spend much time comparing and contrasting the economic records of Obama and Romney, because that doesn’t look good for Obama.